The research I did on the Victorian Era has helped me understand the book, The Importance of Being Earnest, significantly. Especially through the knowledge of marriages during that time period. In the Victorian Era, marriages were thought more as a closure on a business deal instead of for love. This is shown many times throughout the book, especially from Algernon who says to Jack "I thought you had come up for pleasure?... I call that business" after Jack said "I am in love with Gwendolen. I have come up to town expressly to propose to her." I also learned that most children had very little education during the Victorian times. But children from rich families were able to afford to have governesses to teach them. In the book, you are able to realize through this information, that Cecily comes from a wealthy family, and this can be proved because she is taught German lessons by her governess, Miss Prism, which is what poor families weren't able to afford. Poor education is also mentioned by Lady Bracknell when she says "The whole theory of modern education is radically unsound" and when she is talking to Jack and says "Fortunately in England, at any rate, education produces no effect whatsoever" which is showing satire towards education and shows that education was very poor in the Victorian Era but that family wealth is what was important.
What we consider important now, isn't necessarily the same as what people considered important during the Victorian Era. In fact, it was extremely different. Things like wealth, social class, and family history is what was very important to the people then. What people considered important was described many times throughout the book, like when Lady Bracknell says "to lose one parent, Mr Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness." This is what Lady Bracknell says to Jack after he says that he lost both of his parents which shows how ancestry was also very important to be able to trace back to. The information i gathered from my research has enhanced my knowledge of what's "between the lines" while reading the book and has helped me to be able to dig deeper into understanding what's really happening while reading The Importance of Being Earnest.
